The end of the war at the Danube

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

Cat. No. 82161

This dramatic boxart by Piotr Forkasiewicz depicts one  aircraft of II./JG 52 in the last weeks of the war. This unit was commanded by Hptm. Wilhelm Batz (237 v.) from February 1945. Apart from a few Bf 109s of the G-6 and G-14 versions, the core of its armament were Bf 109 G-10/U4s from the nearby WNF plant. The unit also received several Bf 109 K-4s. From the autumn of 1944, II./JG 52 fought in the defence of Hungarian territory, together with the Bf 109s from units 101. Vadászezred, II./JG 51 and I./JG 53, which fought near Vienna and over southern Moravia in April 1945.

Most airmen understood that the end of the war was inevitably approaching and that defeat would probably be terrible. They faced overwhelming odds against Soviet ground and air forces. At this time, over Hungarian and Austrian territory there were also sporadic engagements with American fighters. Yet the pilots of II./JG 52 in the final months of the war managed to find a way to make their lives a little more pleasant in the microworld of their unit. For example, announcing just after midnight a wake-up call pretending to slightly drunk colleagues  that it was seven in the morning.

In his memoirs Heinz Ewald, then a member of II./JG 52 and CO of the 7th Staffel (former 6th Staffel), recalled such funny moments. He was lucky many times during the war (that's why he got the nickname E-Sau). Luck was on his side on March 1, 1945, when he was accidentally shot down by an SS anti-aircraft unit near his own airfield. His friend, later CO of JV 44´s Fw 190 D-9s, the legendary “Heino” Sachsenberg, dealt the flak unit his own crazy way. For more details on this incident, see the INFO Eduard 11/2010. 

A month later II./JG 52 was briefly stationed in Wien-Aspern. Landing on a concrete surface was not something Wilhelm Batz and his subordinates were used to. Not only Batz's K-4 but also twelve other Bf 109s were damaged. On a mission from this base, Ewald was again shot down. This occurred on April 3, 1945, during a strafing attack south of Vienna. Bernd Barbas, in his chronicle of II./JG 52, states that this occurred after a dogfight with American fighters, but Ewald does not mention any enemy aircraft. Moreover, the Americans did not claim any victories in this area. Ewald points out in his memoirs that in addition to a 30mm cannon in the engine and two 13mm machine guns, his machine was also equipped with two 20mm cannons under the wing. After the end of the war, very few G-14 and G-10s were documented as being so armed, but three G-10s with underwing gondolas are known from Austria, for example.

The target of Ewald's Schwarm was in the area Waltersdorf-Moosbrunn. After attacking several columns and equipment assembly areas, one of the wingmen reported that a white “stream” was leaking from Ewald's machine, probably the radiator in the wing had been hit. Then there was an engine failure and Ewald had to put his machine on its belly among the vineyard hills. The left gondola under the wing carved a furrow in the ground like a plough. Ewald pulled the parachute out of the machine and walked west. He soon came under enemy fire and ran away from the machine. Soon dusk fell and he came upon two Sturmgeschütz riding towards his plane. Together with them he returned to the Messerschmitt and the tankers helped him dismantle and salvage the radio station. It was only during the drive back that Ewald noticed that the tankers were from an SS unit. He was taken by another vehicle to his airbase where he was already presumed lost. The grateful airmen rewarded the tankers with a supply of aviation gasoline. During the following day, mechanics, accompanied by tankers, took the aircraft to the base and counted 18 hits. The very next day, 5 April, Ewald managed to shoot down an Il-2 Shturmovik over Vienna. It was his 79th victory. By the end of the war, he scored five more victories and received the Knight's Cross.

In the final weeks of the fighting, Luftwaffe fighter units were being disbanded also in this part of the European battlefield. First II./JG 51 on 12 April, five days later the same fate awaited I./JG 53. Somehow this is how the “white 11” (with the inscription Rosemarie under the cockpit), which bore the overpainted insignia of JG 53 and II./JG 51, got to Ewald's 7th Staffel. It wasthen flown by Ofw. Richter, who didn't belong to II./JG 52, to American captivity at Neubiberg on May 8, 1945. Heinz Ewald was released from American captivity in Fürstenfeldbruck on June 22, 1945.